Digital Privacy, Chapter the 999th

One of the librarians here at the Main Library pointed out the spate of news stories today (1)(2) about the risks to personal privacy which are posed by digital copiers. They have hard drives, and therefore retain information about the copies made, unlike older copiers which form a fresh image made out of electrical charges each time the drum inside the machine rotates. (There's a nice description at howitworks.net.) What's really interesting is that the initial warnings came from an executive at Sharp, a copier manufacturer...

So far, all our copiers are fossils of the old sort...